A combine harvester (also known simply as a “combine”) is a well-known machine used in agricultural applications. In general, combines are designed to travel through crop fields to harvest crop materials. Although combines may have various configurations, most are designed to separate grain from material-other-than-grain (“MOG”). Harvested grain is typically stored on the combine, and MOG is ejected back onto the crop field.
In general, a typical combine is designed to move through large crop fields, and the operations performed by the combine (e.g., cutting, threshing, and cleaning the grain) are most efficient when large amounts of grain are being processed. The combine is operated, for the most part, continuously, and the speed of the movement of the grain through the combine is generally fixed. In some cases, for example, the ground speed of the combine may be adjusted to control the volume of material through the combine. A commercial combine is typically designed to be continuously operated in a fully-loaded condition to optimize performance. Combine performance may include material throughput, harvesting efficiency, and harvested grain quality.
Combines, however, are not only used to harvest crops in a commercial setting, but are also used in research settings involving smaller plots of crops. In a research setting, the same type of combine (e.g., a commercial combine) may be used under intermittently-loaded conditions.
As a result, there is a need in the art for a combine harvester and method configured for gathering crop material efficiently from small research plots rather than continuously from large commercial fields. In addition, there is a need for a combine harvester and method that allows crop material to be gathered from multiple plots while keeping the grain gathered from each plot substantially separate and while minimizing the wait time between plots.